StashCache: A Distributed Caching Federation for the Open Science Grid

Abstract: Data distribution for opportunistic users is challenging as they neither own the computing resources they are using or any nearby storage. Users are motivated to use opportunistic computing to expand their data processing capacity, but they require storage and fast networking to distribute data to that processing. Since it requires significant management overhead, it is rare for resource providers to allow opportunistic access to storage. Additionally, in order to use opportunistic storage at several distributed sites, users assume the responsibility to maintain their data. In this paper we present StashCache, a distributed caching federation that enables opportunistic users to utilize nearby opportunistic storage. StashCache is comprised of four components: data origins, redirectors, caches, and clients. StashCache has been deployed in the Open Science Grid for several years and has been used by many projects. Caches are deployed in geographically distributed locations across the U.S. and Europe. We will present the architecture of StashCache, as well as utilization information of the infrastructure. We will also present performance analysis comparing distributed HTTP Proxies vs StashCache.